by Kimberly David

Created on: October 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 28, 2009

What is wisdom? We all know of Solomon's great wisdom. Most of us have read the story about the queen of Sheba coming to him and discovering that his wisdom was even greater than the tales she had heard of him. We find that Scripture describes wisdom as a woman crying out in the streets, and anyone who hears her voice and heeds her words can come to receive of her riches. Proverbs tells Christians to seek after wisdom for it is more precious than rubies, silver, even gold. The Lord also tells His children that wisdom brings happiness.

All this sounds almost too good to be true. It seems amazing to think that there is a virtue, more precious than the most precious metals, readily available to any who seek it. But sometimes this wonderful and necessary virtue seems vague and distant. So, what is this wonderful treasure? Where does it come from, and how can today's Christian find and keep it? Psalm 111 says that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and James 1 claims that if God's children ask for it, God will freely give us wisdom. These two references reveal the source of wisdom and its starting point in a Christian's life, but what does it really mean?

Probably the best way to begin this journey is by looking at wisdom itself. If we Christians don't understand what we are striving for we won't know if or when we have achieved it. Because wisdom is an intangible concept rather than an object that can be experienced through the five senses, we have to be a bit more creative in our attempts to describe and understand it. One way to begin to understand the concept of wisdom is to consider its opposite. It is much easier to comprehend something if there is an opposite to compare it to. So what is wisdom's antithesis?

To begin, let's consider Jesus' parable about the wise man who built his house upon a rock. This parable presents two opposing characters: a wise man and a fool. Jesus' parable of wisdom begins with its opposite, therefore, this discussion should likewise consider the wise man's opposite for a moment. The Lord calls him foolish for building his house upon the sand. When the rains came his house had no foundation and fell in upon itself (Matt. 7:24-27).

Jesus never states why this man chose to build his house upon the sand, but there are a few possible motivations that are worth of consideration. First, perhaps the foolish man didn't want to go to all the trouble and toil of digging into solid rock for his foundation. Sand is definitely

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